Tragedies in Prince Rupert, Tumbler Ridge highlight urgent need for mental health supports
CBC
On the day of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, a coroner’s inquest revealed that a separate murder-suicide in northern B.C. was fueled in part by inadequate mental health supports.
And like the events in Tumbler Ridge, the details of what happened to a family of four in Prince Rupert raised concerns about the tools available for families, police and health-care workers to avoid tragedy — an issue people with firsthand experience hope will be addressed as yet another coroner’s inquest has been announced for the region.
"It’s not just a northern thing, it’s an all of B.C. thing," said Dr. Barbara Kane, the head of the psychiatric ward at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George.
Kane provided testimony at the coroner’s inquest into the events in Prince Rupert and said she is glad a similar fact-finding exercise will be held for Tumbler Ridge.
"They need to hear how limited some of the services are for people with mental health problems," she said.
The Prince Rupert case focused on the events leading up to June 13, 2023, when 38-year-old Christopher Duong of Prince Rupert was found dead of self-inflicted wounds alongside the bodies of his two young children and their mother.
The inquest heard Duong had been taken to hospital by RCMP under the Mental Health Act a few days earlier, but was released just hours later with no concrete plan for follow-up care.
It also heard that after his release, Duong’s father had sounded the alarm about his son’s erratic and paranoid behaviour.
Within hours of the jury in Prince Rupert delivering its findings in the case, news of the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge began to emerge — eight people dead, along with their killer through self-inflicted wounds.
As in Prince Rupert, RCMP in Tumbler Ridge say the 18-year-old perpetrator had previously been apprehended by police under the Mental Health Act.
In a statement shared to the Globe and Mail, the shooter’s grandparents said the family had tried unsuccessfully to get help for a variety of mental health concerns.
The mother of a girl still in hospital told reporters she knew the shooter's family and their struggle to get support.
"It's about mental health. It's about a lack of resources," she told reporters.
The investigation into the case is still underway.
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